Player Definition Change - 2-way Players

Added 12/30/17

Allowance for players who pitch and hit

In a 2018 change, because of the signing of Shohei Ohtani
and the potential of some minor leaguers to move up as 2-way
players - playing regularly as both a pitcher and hitter -
BWB will define a new category of player that can do both.

This requires some modifications on several of the rules
pages, but for reference purposes, you can refer to

1.3 Entry Fees and Prizes

Modification of Cooperstown Club

Added 4/3/18

The Cooperstown Club is referred to in this section as a
lifetime membership, although the full details of the
program are instead outlined on the
program page.

One of the benefits of the Cooperstown Club is that it
can be extended to spouses/partners and children. The
ending age for kids had been defined as 21, but informally
had been extended "as long as the son/daughter continued to
live at home." This change puts a hard end to that
time period, limiting the benefit to children 25 or younger.
Upon signup in BWB, we ask for birth year, but not birth
date, so for this purpose, the final season in which a kid
can use the unlimited free teams benefit from a parent's
membership is the calendar year in which he/she turns 25.
For the season coming in the calendar year when he/she turns
26, those teams are subject to regular fees and separate
season/lifetime memberships.

4.3.2 Signing Players Directly to IR

4.4 Prospects

This rule adds 5 more minor league spots to the team's
roster, but is open only to players with salary 100 and who
have never played in the majors. The prime benefit,
beyond adding 5 more minor league slots, is that these
players do not count against the 28-player limit when
picking roster carryovers for the next season.

On the flip side, there is a non-refundable tranaction
charge of 250 to move a player to prospect status, and
players on the prospect level cannot be promoted to the
active roster at any time for the remainder of the season.

Read the full rule for all the details. In 2018,
this rule will be implemented for the Week 11 transactions

8.3 Team Revenue Sources

8.3.1 Preseason

Added language to include providing 1000 in cash after
the Redistribution Draft to cover fees for the
Prospects roster. In 2018 as we kick off the
implementation of the rule, that cash will be added during
Week 10.

8.3.2 Regular Season

8.3.2.1 Team Performance

Clarified that cash for wins and division placement will
be disbursed 2 weeks after the game week occurs.

Modifying the cash payouts for wins and division
placement. The reason behind this is in part to
discourage outright tanking. The reward for wins will
increase later in the season and the disbursement for 4th
place will decrease. Teams that actively attempt to
field non-competitive teams in the later part of the season
will miss out on cash they might get from winning more games
and will not get as much cash handed out for being at the
bottom of the standings.

Was:

Wins: Teams will receive $50,000 per win in a
week.

Now:

Wins: Teams will receive cash
per win each week. The amount varies throughout the season
to reward better team performance at the end of the season.
(More details in the full text of the rule)

Cash per win:

Weeks 1-15: $50,000

Weeks 16-20: $75,000

Weeks 21-25: $100,000

Position payout for 4th place

Was:

4th place - $150,000

Now:

4th place:

Weeks 1-15: $150,000

Weeks 16-20: $100,000

Weeks 21-25: $0

10.2 Minor League Competition

I'm determined to bring back the minor league competion
back in 2018. This is a rotisserie-format scoring
using the teams' minor league rosters and using only stats
from the minor leagues. There are a few changes from
when we last did this:

10.2.1 Scoring

In the previous seasons, the number of saves earned from
the minor league rosters were minimal - nobody is rostering
minor league closers (and there's generally no benefit to do
that). So we are replacing the saves category
with innings pitched (and this may be changed again in
the future).

10.2.2 Season Schedule

Was:

Statistics will be collected based upon your minor league
roster and the current minor league stats in these fantasy
weeks:

4 7 10
13 16 19
22

Now:

Statistics are collected at the end of the year with
these conditions:

The player must appear on the minor league or
prospect rosters at least once between Weeks 4 and 23

The total number of weeks the player is on the minor
league or prospect rosters between Weeks 4 and 23 will
be tallied. Weeks where a player is on the major
league roster or on the taxi squad will not count.

The number of weeks a player appears on a team's
minor league or prospect rosters between Weeks 4 and 23
will determine a percentage mulitplier for each player
in this fashion:

16+ weeks - 100%

11-15 weeks - 75%

6-10 weeks - 50%

5 or fewer weeks - 25%

Exception - if a player has fewer than 50 AB or
25 IP in the minor leagues for the season, but
qualifies for stats, their stat multiplier is 100%

The stat multiplier is multiplied by the season's
total stats in the listed categories

Each player's total Iafter the multiplier factor) is
added to the team total

13.6 Inactive Owners - Regular Season

Read the rule for details, but this rule helps to codify
what has been some informal and occasional practices of
modifying lineups for inactive teams and goes a bit further
with the possibility of transactions. Several owners
have expressed a need to prevent teams from becoming a
driftless roster with no hope of winning games and messing
up with the competitive balance of the league.

15.2 Salary Formulas

Read the rule for
details - this change for the 2019 season will describe how
we'll deal with salaries for 2-way players, like Shohei Ohtani.

There's also a change for how salaries are calculated beginning
with the 2018 season - to avoid outliers like Zachary Britton
and other closers in the past, there's a limit on how much one
player's salary calculation for a given season's stats can
exceed the player with the next highest raw calculation.

17.3 Master Player List and Positions: Two-way players

Read the rule for
details - this change refers to 2-way players, including that
minor league players will be considered as either a hitter or a
pitcher, with 2-way status, if any, determined when they near or
reach the major leagues.

18.3 Collusion and Tanking

Read the rule for
details. This puts some emphasis and some boundaries on
occasional complaints from owners who see teams:

Trade away valuable players for little tangible return
with some potential that the team dumping players is
favoring another owner

Teams deliberately fielding lineups with players who
have no hope of earning major league stats while stashing
everyday players and stars in inactive roster spots.

BWB understands that rebuilding and retooling for the future
is often necessary - but even MLB teams that are in that mode
field a batting order and a starting pitcher for each game.
Deliberately rigging the lineup to in a sense "forfeit" games
with guaranteed Benchwarmer Batters and Pinesitter Pitchers
kills the fun for the others in the league.

This is likely to have some reaction - Benchwarmer Baseball
is open to feedback and response from this rule and all the rule
changes and is open to modification or reversal in future
seasons.